Fighting continued on Saturday around Gaza’s main hospital, where Israel said more than 170 gunmen had so far been killed in a large-scale attack that the Palestinian Health Ministry said also left five patients dead, Reuters reported and News.ro.

Hamas’s armed wing and Islamic Jihad say their fighters are fighting Israeli forces in and around Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, although Hamas denies any presence in the building.

Israeli forces stormed al-Shifa early Monday morning and have since been prowling the sprawling compound, which the military says is linked to a network of tunnels used as a base for Hamas and other Palestinian militants.

Gaza’s health ministry says five wounded Palestinians who were “besieged” in al-Shifa have died because they did not receive proper care, water and food for the past six days, and that the condition of other wounded patients is getting worse

The Israeli army, which lost two soldiers in fighting at the hospital, says it is preventing injuries to civilians, patients and medical staff and providing them with food, water and proper access to medical care.

Reuters said it was unable to access the hospital and verify any reports.

Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip before the war, is now one of the few medical facilities that is even partially functional in the north of the territory, which also houses displaced civilians.

Local residents say Israeli forces blew up dozens of houses and apartments in the streets around the hospital and destroyed roads. A nearby private medical center, Al Helo Hospital, was also said to have been hit by the army.

The press service of the Hamas-controlled Gaza government said Israeli tanks struck several buildings at Al-Shifa Hospital and set fire to the surgical ward, as well as some 240 patients and their companions, as well as dozens of health workers. systems were delayed.

The Israeli army said that more than 350 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants have been detained at the hospital so far, and a total of 800 people have been questioned.

In recent days, Hamas spokesmen have said that the casualties announced in previous Israeli statements were not fighters, but patients and displaced persons.

Israel faced fierce criticism in November when troops first attacked the hospital. Troops discovered tunnels there, which they said were used by Hamas as command and control centers.

Elsewhere in Gaza City, several Palestinians were killed and wounded at a roundabout while waiting for humanitarian aid trucks, Hamas media reported on Saturday.

In Rafah, where more than a million people are sheltering, health officials said an Israeli airstrike on a house killed eight people and wounded others.

The Israeli military said it killed at least 20 gunmen in airstrikes and direct fighting in central Gaza and the southern Khan Yunis district.

According to health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave, more than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The war began when Hamas militants entered southern Israel in an attack on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 253 hostage, according to Israel.